


sings a song sounds like she's singing

by sloane (quintic)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Mutual Pining, Useless Lesbians, gratuitous music references (sorry), nudity mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 18:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12612456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quintic/pseuds/sloane
Summary: is there a universe that exists out there where lup doesn't seem to know exactly how lucretia feels about her? do her thoughts appear above her head in neat, neon cursive for the entire world to see?





	sings a song sounds like she's singing

**Author's Note:**

> oooh baby ooh, ooh. 
> 
> this is going to be chaptered, i swear. hold me to this one! (also i know that mp3 players don't exist but let me have it anyway thank you)

One might think that, considering there are only two girls on board the Starblaster, that it would be considerably easier to get into the sole bathroom that they both share unlike the other that the five boys have to vie for. Whomever might assume this has clearly never met Lup before.

It's eleven thirty-two at night by Lucretia's last count, and she's been standing outside the closed bathroom door pointedly for ten minutes now, waiting to use the shower before heading off to bed. She's tired and muddy from the day's exploration, and it doesn't even sound like Lup is using the bathroom or the sink or– anything? All Lucretia can hear is a low electric hum, Jodi Mitchell crooning in the background and Lup's soft, rasping voice as she sings along. Leaning against the wall next to the door and listening erases some of the indignance of having to wait so long to get into the bathroom; Lucretia especially likes that when Lup gets to a verse she doesn't know she just sings _la la la_ in the place of the actual words.

... This is so ridiculous. She wants to go to bed already!

It takes her another five minutes to gather up the courage to knock on the door. Maybe in other circumstances she would have just left it and had a shower first thing in the morning but Lucretia's pretty sure that she has mud in her hair, so. It'd be great if she could _just_ –

"Lup?" She calls, after forcing her fist to connect with the door once, twice.

"What!" Lup yells back. Another minute later and the music pauses.

"I want to use the shower," Lucretia presses, staring down at the towel in her arms (bright red, standard IPRE issue, the same as pretty much everything else she owns). "How long are you gonna be?"

"Come in!"

"... What?"

"Come in–" Lup's voice is nearer this time, and then the door swings open and Lup sticks her head out. Lucretia stares, unsure if this is a trap or not. Lup is grinning like a wolf at her, all teeth. "Sheesh Lux. You look dirty."

"I fell in a puddle," Lucretia says, and surprises herself by pushing past Lup into the bathroom. Lup snorts with laughter and closes the door behind them, reaching to clicking play on a beat up mp3 player sitting on the little ledge that borders the mirror above the sink: Tracy Chapman's _Give Me One Reason_ fills the room as Lucretia finds a seat on the edge of the bathtub. It's only now that she realises what Lup has been doing: shaving her undercut. She's watching Lucretia playfully from the sink, leaning back against it and Lucretia notices with a shock of delighted embarrassment that she isn't wearing a shirt. She's just standing there in her bra and track pants without a care in the world, audacious as always. Lucretia drags her eyes from the clusters of freckles on her dark shoulders and back down to the towel in her arms.

Lucretia has always prided herself on being able to pick things out of people they wouldn't usually give. In this regard, Lup is a maddening mystery to her because it's so hard to tell what she's thinking: she can barely grasp surface level intent let alone what's really going on behind those bright, clever eyes. All she has to do is smile and make a bad joke and Lucretia loses what little grip she has on her or what she wants. Because that's what it's really about in the end, isn't it? What Lup  _wants,_  specifically with her. As much as she wants to know, she doesn't dare to ask.

Lup's thoughts aside, Lucretia knows both who and what  _she_ wants.

Perhaps she has a face on like she is thinking very hard, because when Lup starts talking again, Lucretia can hear the grin in her voice as she turns back towards the mirror, and picks up her razor.

"I'm nearly done, promise."

"It's cool."

She doesn't mind waiting. It's nice in here, warm, and Lup is singing under her breath again as she tosses her hair over her shoulder, swaying her hips to the music.

Lucretia clears her throat. "What were you doing today?"

"Same shit as always!"

The pair of them sigh almost in unison. "No sign of the light?"

"Not one glimpse." Lup mashes her ear down with a frown, angling the razor to try and get at the longer hairs behind it. "I'm so sick of it! Feels like we've canvassed half the planet by now. This place isn't even interesting to comb over Luce, it's just... like, houses and shit."

"Yeah, because we're right by a big town? We've barely scratched the surface level of this place."

Lup doesn't answer that, but her singing comes back in full force for half a verse, which makes Lucretia grin.

"Gimme a hand?"

"Sorry?"

"I can't get the back of my– come here, god." Lup glances over her shoulder and grabs Lucretia's wrist impatiently, pulling her to her feet. "Leave the towel. Here."

Her razor is bright red, and Lucretia thumbs the button to make it go, then glances up hesitantly as Lup turns back to face the mirror, tipping her head forwards to better expose the nape of her neck.

"I haven't used one of these before."

"You're a clever girl, you'll figure it out. And the guard will keep you from scalping me or anything, so don't worry about that."

"Okay." Lucretia pulls the cord around to give herself more room, and places her free hand on Lup's shoulder. Lup shivers, and chuckles when Lucretia's fingers dart back from her uncertainly.

"Your hands are cold."

"Sorry."

"No stress, chickadee."

Lucretia blows on her fingers to warm them, which makes Lup laugh again, and then dares to card her hand through Lup's hair and pull it gently to the side so she can see the line of her undercut more clearly. Lup hums, and leans against the sink so Lucretia doesn't have to stretch up in order to reach properly. It is actually very easy to shave the back of Lup's head: it's like stripping a canvas of paint. She sections off strips of scalp, running the razor up one bit at a time and it's easy to see the parts that Lup has missed and even those out as she goes.

When it comes to rounding over Lup's head near the bottom of her jaw, Lucretia hesitates. She touches her fingers to Lup's ear, and it twitches, and Lup makes a little noise in the back of her throat when she glances back, gaze soft. Lucretia swallows, and gestures lamely with the razor.

"Can you hold it or something? I'll just–"

"Yeah, here." Lup pulls her ear forward to let Lucretia get a better angle. "You should let me shave your head sometime. I bet it'd look baller."

"No," Lucretia scoffs, trailing her fingers light over Lup's neck and smiling when she shivers a little in response. It is deeply satisfying to run the length of the razor up the edge of her undercut, creating one long, smooth, uninterrupted divide.

"It would! Besides, it's just hair Lux, it's not like it won't grow back. And if it looks really awful- which it won't- you can always pitch yourself off the side of the– _oi_!" She laughs when Lucretia elbows her in the back while passing her razor to her. Fleetwood Mac is next, the song tinny and funny on the broken mp3. Lucretia wipes her hands off on her jeans unceremoniously as Lup pops the guard off the razor to square off the edges of her hairline.

"You're terrible."

"I try. But for realsies, let me shave your hair! C'mon Lux, be punk rock!"

"I'm nothing of the sort Lup. Like, famously so."

Lup makes eye contact with her in the mirror, and gives her an over-exaggerated wink that only serves to make her laugh. "I know! That's why this is a great opportunity to reinvent your brand, y'know?"

Lucretia loves the way she squints into the mirror, leaning in as close as the clunky razor will permit her to. When she finally stops talking to concentrate her tongue pokes out the corner of her mouth, and she's beautiful, even with her own hair sticking to her chest and collarbone.

"Done. How do I look?"

She turns and gives Lucretia a cheeky grin as she runs a hand slow through her hair, shaking it out across her shoulder and for a moment even Lucretia- her words and her journals and her endless vocabulary be damned- cannot come up with one thing to say in response.

"Good?" Lup is preening under all the attention, clearly in her element as she rakes her fingers slow through her hair. Lucretia's mouth is traitorously dry. "Seems pretty good! Look alive, Luce."

"Shut up! It's good, it's good. I like it."

"Good," Lup breathes and then she leans in close and Lucretia feels like her heart might stall. Lips press light against her cheekbone for a burning hot second, and then Lup is hopping into the shower, yanking the curtain across. Lucretia, made dazed by the kiss, doesn't fully register what she's just been robbed of until the water turns on. Lup throws her sweats and underwear unceremoniously over the top of the shower curtain and Lucretia reels away to avoid any errant sprays of water, her eyebrows knitting in mock anger.

"Are you _serious_?"

"You snooze you lose," Lup calls. Lucretia can see her silhouette beyond the curtain, all her curves, her neck extended when she tips her head back. She swallows, and slowly backs up against the sink. "In all seriousness babe, I'll be five minutes- just gotta get the hair off of me."

"Gross," Lucretia says faintly, and Lup lets a peal of laughter loose. The next song on her playlist is by Stevie Nicks.

"Hey, what are you up to after this?"

"Uh, sleeping? Some of us were up to our elbows in it today, you know?"

"I don't! Because I wasn't one of them! You should come over!"

Lup's voice is plaintive; she even hooks her hand around the curtain and pokes her head out to give Lucretia a sad, puppy-dog look where she stands, leaning against the sink. "Stay with me."

Is there a universe that exists out there where Lup doesn't seem to know exactly how Lucretia feels about her?

Do her thoughts appear above her head in neat, neon cursive for the entire world to see?

Lucretia clears her throat, frowning at her hands. "I'm too tired to stay up and talk."

"That's cool! Just come sleep with me." Lup gives her a wink that makes butterflies explode in her stomach before she yanks the curtain closed again, hands running through her hair. An earthquake is brewing in Lucretia's blood.

"Okay," she whispers for her own edification, then repeats it louder so Lup can hear. "Okay."

"Sweet! Besides, we can talk in the morning when you wake up."

"I like that you're implying we're going to be awake at the same time."

" _Rude._ But fair, I'll let you have that one."

"Oh, thank you," Lucretia says like she isn't on fire, her fingers curled against the lip of the sink, nails scraping against porcelain, "for the magnanimity, Lup, I appreciate it."

"Shut up and cover your fucking eyes, nerd."

The shower is off; Lup draws back the curtain with a shocking suddenness that makes Lucretia giggle helplessly even as she presses her hands obediently over her eyes. She can hear Lup wrapping a towel about herself, and traitorously peeks through the gaps in her fingers to watch Lup wring the water out of her hair.

"Alright: I am decent."

"For once."

" _Excuse_ you."

When Lucretia opens her eyes again, Lup is grinning, all her teeth on display. "Your turn, chickadee. Meet me in my room afterwards?"

"Sure. Wait–" she adds, as Lup crosses to the sink to pick up her things. Her body is damp, and radiates warmth when she passes and Lucretia feels faint with desire. "Leave the music, I like this list."

Lup pauses and Lucretia thinks that, in that moment, if this were a scene she had been writing she would have written Lup into kissing her by now, would have written Lup's warm, wet hands on the side of her face, lips on hers, thigh riding up between her legs. If she were writing this story, the fictional version of her would have been brave enough to join Lup in the shower, brave enough to press against her naked body, mouths together, skin on skin on skin on skin on skin.

But she isn't that person. Lup is looking at her, soft and contemplative.

"Okay," she says finally, and doesn't move.

"Okay," Lucretia echoes. There is lightening in the room right there with them, hot enough to make the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. She makes as if to start pulling her shirt off. "See you in a bit?"

"Yep." Lup looks distracted: she stands there for a moment, her gaze- somewhere, hovering between what Lucretia thinks is her chest and the belt loops on her jeans, and then she's gone just as suddenly, the bathroom door slamming shut.

Lucretia, left standing there and struck dumb, takes a moment to think about signals, of what you might be trying to more or less say by inviting a girl to come into the bathroom while you shave your hair and shower, and feels like an idiot. For all her reading people and their intentions, of her ability to dig her nails gently into the seams of people and pry them curiously apart, she sure is useless when it comes to this, to Lup.

The kiss lingers even in Lup's absence, high on her cheekbone and hot.

Lucretia lets a breath leak out of her she didn't know she was holding, and turns the water on as hot as it will go. Sheryl Crow is next as she steps into the spray.


End file.
